Placeholding Protocol?
Posted on February 17th, 2009 – 12:38 PMBy Kay Krhin
Today we have a great question from Cribsheet’s in-box prompted by last weeks post “Day Care Decline” regarding childcare and the current economy.
Any other parents or providers want to weigh in?
What is the normal policy of providers when families are expecting baby #2? Our completely-reliable and otherwise-terrific home day care provider is balking at holding a spot for baby #2, because her next opening is much sooner than baby will arrive. I’m curious about what others have experienced. What’s fair, and what’s not? Should we be expected to pay for those open months? I don’t think so, but out of respect for my provider, I don’t want her to forgo income, either.
- Jennifer
9 Responses to "Placeholding Protocol?"
See, this is why we’re trying right now for #2. We figure that if all the stars and moon align and we get pregnant in the next month or so then DD’s slot will open up in time for the next one to fill it. But let’s say it takes a bit longer, our provider may instead of opening up DD’s slot to anyone under 2, limit it to a baby over 1 so that it could be open for us. I think it’s about communication and trying to be fair. Let’s say that our daughter was 3 and our provider had two 6-month-olds and I was pregnant. I would have to look for someone else because I can’t make my provider get rid of one of the kids once my newborn comes along.
I used an in-home daycare provider and it was expected that we would tell her as soon as possible what our plans were for baby#2 if we wanted her to “hold” a spot. There was never an expectation that we would pay for that hold. I also knew I couldn’t expect her to change our arrangement with #1 (reduce days,etc.) If she won’t hold the spot for you she must realize that you would likely find care that will take both your children and she would lose a child. It is easier on the provider to have multiple children from the same family. At the time I had #2 there were other mom’s due right before me so I did need to make some adjustments to my part-time schedule to accommodate everyone’s schedule. I would explain to your provider that you can’t afford to pay for those month’s and try to work out a compromise. Perhaps you can pay 1/2 rate for a few months or maybe have the option to reduce your other child’s daycare when you are on maternity. Good luck!
At our current daycare, and a few others I visited, you paid a fee to hold a spot for pretty much as long as you needed to hold it. Of course if that was over 6 months or something that might be a different story. I definitely wouldn’t pay for a spot that you’re not currently using.
Considering the state of the economy it seems like this provider should take a sure thing rather than try to bring in a new family. At my daughter’s daycare 3 children have left within the past month due to layoffs so the group is really in flux. In the worst case scenario I’m sure you could find another provider that will happily take both children and not charge for time you’re not using. I would maybe let your current provider know that you’re looking around at other options.
I guess it was never a question for my provider - she was not actively looking for any other children but just took the new additions to her existing families. Our problem was that one family had a baby last year January; we told her we were expecting just a week after the other family told her. Obviously, they got the available infant opening, not only because they told her first, but also because they were due first. Our provider was looking into getting a variance on her license, so she could also take our baby for the two months before the first child turned one, but then she herself got pregnant. There went our hopes! LOL. (Fortunately for us, due to job losses and new job schedules, we have been able to pull the girls from daycare completely, so we didn’t have to find a new provider or split up the kids at two different daycares.) You might want to see if you can find out why she is balking - maybe she has been burned in the past, holding open a spot only to have the family decide to withdraw and have mom stay home?
Do you LOVE your provider? If not, perhaps you can look around for other daycare and then keep both kids home with you until you go back to work after maternity leave and then start up at a new place? From what I’m hearing infant openings are not as hard to come by as they have been in recent years. If I had been able to pull my daughter out of daycare while on maternity leave with our son I could have saved over $3000k but I had to pay that regardless of if she did or didn’t go to daycare - to “hold” the spot - so she went while I stayed home with the baby! It was good for us, she got to hang out with her friends, I got to bond with the world’s crabbiest baby and try and figure him out!! We didn’t have to pay for our son until he started though - thankfully! In this economy - I don’t think any of us can afford to be paying for a spot we aren’t currently using - some of us can barely afford the spots that we ARE using!
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I told my daycare as soon as we got pregnant and when my due date was and when I was expecting to put my child there. She had a spot open for my child. While I was on maternity leave we had our first part-time. We always go part-time in summer because my husband is a teacher. So since my daughter was born in March we started summer schedule early. In June my daughter started going part-time and then in the fall, both kids were full-time. She had no problem with this. She only has 5 kids right now and two of those kids are my own.
It sounds like everyones daycares have different policies! We were very fortunate in not having to pay to hold our spot, although if she would have wanted us to I would have paid. She does a great job, and I would not have wanted to find someone different. My oldest son loves her, not to mention that she is right across the street from the pre-school and public school. So I guess it just depends on how much you like your daycare! I live in Southern MN, so I am guessing I pay less in daycare than all of you in the cities…it may be a little easier for me to say I would pay to hold a spot. 
My center will hold a spot for clients with a nonrefundable $75. When I was pregnant with DS I had his daycare lined up in November of 04 and he didn’t start until August of 05 ($75 held his spot for 9 months). I’m glad I did it that early because during the month of November 04 they were booked in the infant room until May of 05…his daycare still carries the same policy…
